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'Dragon Age: Inquisition' (ALL) Shows Off Western Approach - Screens

Dragon Age: Inquisition combines the storytelling BioWare is known for, with deep RPG gameplay, all on a brand new RPG game engine underpinned by EA’s Frostbite 2 technology.

A cataclysmic event plunges the land of Thedas into turmoil. Dragons darken the sky, casting a shadow of terror over a once-peaceful kingdom. Mages break into all-out war against the oppressive Templars. Nations rise against one another. It falls to you and your party of legendary heroes to restore order as you lead the Inquisition, hunting down the agents of chaos. Bonds will form - and some will break - as the campaign for truth takes its toll.

BioWare's latest action-adventure delivers an unparalleled story set in a vast, changeable landscape. Explore hidden caves, defeat truly monumental creatures, and shape the world around you based on your unique play style.

Explore, lead, and battle: Tough choices define your experience, and even one decision can change the course of what's to come.

The Fortress of Adamant

Of all the decisions we Grey Wardens were forced to make over the lean years, withdrawing from the fortress of Adamant was perhaps the most difficult. It had been built to stand as a bastion against the darkspawn spilling out from the Abyssal Rift—a symbol of how we had done the impossible and pushed those creatures back into the shadows where they belonged. We kept the land safe from further encroachment, but as each new age dawned, memories of our sacrifice became a little fainter. The entire Western Approach had become a wasteland, and thus the expense of maintaining the fortress became harder and harder to justify. There were no more griffons to fill its weyrs, too few Wardens to man its battlements, too many good men and women killed by demons creeping through the thin Veil... Each visit of the Warden-Commander made it more and more apparent that Adamant had instead become a symbol of our decline. Many said that, even if darkspawn did still emerge from the chasm, who would they threaten other than the Grey Wardens themselves?

So in the dawn of the Blessed Age, we sealed the fortress's mighty gates. We left the great griffon statues to tarnish and wear in the blowing sand, retreating to Montsimmard with a sense of loss and shame. I recently returned with a small expedition to retrieve supplies left behind and was surprised to see it still standing. The dwarves did well by us, and I suspect Adamant will remain for ages to come... but should the Order ever return, they will find it difficult to resurrect this place. Only spirits roam its halls now, alongside the memories of those who gave their lives to protect us all from darkness.

The Grey Wardens

The First Blight had already raged for 90 years. The world was in chaos. A god had risen, twisted and corrupted. The remaining gods of Tevinter were silent, withdrawn. What writing we have recovered from those times is filled with despair, for everyone believed, from the greatest Archons to the lowliest slaves, that the world was coming to an end.

At Weisshaupt fortress in the desolate Anderfels, a meeting transpired. Soldiers of the Imperium, seasoned veterans who had known nothing their entire lifetimes except hopeless war, came together. When they left Weisshaupt, they had renounced their oaths to the Imperium. They were soldiers no longer: They were the Grey Wardens. The Wardens began an aggressive campaign against the Blight, striking back against the darkspawn, reclaiming lands given up for lost. The Blight was far from over, but their victories brought notice, and soon they received aid from every nation in Thedas.

They grew in number as well as reputation. Finally, in the year 992 of the Tevinter Imperium, upon the Silent Plains, they met the Archdemon Dumat in battle. A third of all the armies of northern Thedas were lost to the fighting, but Dumat fell and the darkspawn fled back underground. Even that was not the end. The Imperium once revered seven gods: Dumat, Zazikel, Toth, Andorhal, Razikale, Lusacan, and Urthemiel. Four have risen as Archdemons. The Grey Wardens have kept watch through the ages, well aware that peace is fleeting, and that their war continues until the last of the dragon-gods is gone.

The Darkspawn

Sin was the midwife that ushered the darkspawn into this world. The magisters fell from the Golden City, and their fate encompassed all our world's. For they were not alone.

No one knows where the darkspawn come from. A dark mockery of men, in the darkest places they thrive, growing in numbers as a plague of locusts will. In raids, they will often take captives, dragging their victims alive into the Deep Roads, but most evidence suggests that these are eaten. Like spiders, it seems darkspawn prefer their food still breathing. Perhaps they are simply spawned by the darkness. Certainly, we know that evil has no trouble perpetuating itself.

The last Blight was in the Age of Towers, striking once again at the heart of Tevinter, spreading south into Orlais and east into the Free Marches. The plagues spread as far as Ferelden, but the withering and twisting of the land stopped well beyond our borders. Here, darkspawn have never been more than the stuff of legends. In the northern lands, however, particularly Tevinter and the Anderfels, they say darkspawn haunt the hinterlands, preying on outlying farmers and isolated villages, a constant threat.